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Juvenile camp could open as soon as October

Jim Kalvelage

Posted:
04/02/2013 06:34:30 PM MDT

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As CYFD Deputy Cabinet Secretary Jennifer Padgett listens, the department's Deputy Director of Facilities Ken Pifer details plans for a renewed juvenile detention outpost at the site of the former Camp Sierra Blanca.

This is the first part of a two-series on a juvenile center to be run by the state near Fort Stanton. On Friday, what will the new facility be like? The second installment also will explain how the state has shifted from a correctional system approach with youthful offenders to what CYFD calls a therapeutic model that the department said reduces recidivism.

Something along the lines of Camp Sierra Blanca will reopen, possibly in October.

A town hall meeting Monday led by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department brought the confirmation about 30 minutes into the session held at Ruidoso High School. The facility would house male youth between the ages 14 through 17.

"The bottom line, and to be frank and very, very candid, is that we are in Phase 1 of reopening the facility," Jennifer Padgett, CYFD deputy cabinet secretary, told the couple dozen in the audience.

"You mean your mind is made up?" Robert Rowe of Alto asked. Rowe said he was a strong supporter of preserving historic Fort Stanton.

"Yes sir," Padgett replied. "We want to address any questions," she said of the town hall meeting that was announced last Thursday.

"You wanted for us to know what you have in store for us," Rowe retorted.

Lincoln County Commissioner Kathryn Minter, who resides in a subdivision west of the planned juvenile facility, said more than a year ago CYFD officials were asked to listen to the community, sit down with stakeholders, and do some research.

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"The BLM, (New Mexico) Cultural Affairs, the Capitan schools and Fort Stanton - these are major stakeholders," Minter identified as key interests. "They have issues, especially the BLM. They've been left out entirely."

The BLM has public lands around Fort Stanton that are popular with hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders.

"We wanted to make sure that in fact we were going to get the funding from the Legislature," the CYFD deputy secretary said of a state budget that included work at the former Camp Sierra Blanca. "I understand the stakeholders were involved at meetings in the past year. But we didn't want to come and get the community riled up and not have the concrete knowledge that it was a reality until we actually saw we were going to have the funding."

Padgett said she did not want to have an adversarial relationship with the community.

"And I know that people are upset and we want to address those concerns. So please tell us, ask questions, and tell us how we can address those concerns."

Padgett said the Ruidoso - Capitan area will need to coexist with the facility.

"There's got to be a balance that potentially we as constituents in your community can strike. And I hope that you're open to that balance."

Minter said the area was open to a balance.

"We want to coexist," she told Padgett. "You need those people with you all the way because when you get down the road and you've got your plan and you're throwing it down our throat, it doesn't work."

Security promised

CYFD Deputy Director of Facilities Ken Pifer said security will be tight. But Robert Rowe told Pifer he was missing the point.

"There was a facility here before," Rowe said. "There were escapes. There were car-jackings. In one, my neighbor was carjacked. We do not want it here. Are you familiar with the expression NIMBY - not in my backyard? I think that applies here."

Pifer replied that he has been working in the juvenile justice system for 37 years.

Capitan Municipal School District Superintendent Shirley Crawford said a public notification process was promised in the past by CYFD in the event of an escape.

"What about progress towards something like that so that those of us who live and work near the facility know quickly if something has happened?" Crawford asked.

Minter said CYFD could use Lincoln County's reverse 911 system that can phone specific parts of the county to deliver a message. Padgett called the offer a "great idea."

Asked about a barrier to keep incarcerated teens inside the facility, Pifer said there is already a 12- to 14-foot fence around the perimeter.

"They'll be locked in a building," Pifer said. "When they go, for instance to the education building, they'll be in a locked setting. When they go back to their units they'll be in a locked setting. There will be outside recreation."

Guards also will be onsite, Pifer said.

What's in a name?

CYFD officials still are looking for a name for the new juvenile center that will be run by the state. A year ago it was stated that the title Camp Sierra Blanca was likely out because of copyright issues. Pifer noted there had been a couple of community meetings in early 2012 to talk about what the state might do with the facility next to Fort Stanton.

"Why do you keep referring to this as Fort Stanton?" Charlotte Rowe, vice president of Fort Stanton, Inc. and the wife of Robert Rowe asked. "Fort Stanton is a state monument."

"I was just using it as a reference geographically, to let the folks know where it is," Pifer replied.

Rowe said everyone knows where the former Camp Sierra Blanca facility is located.

"And I resent having it associated with that," she told Pifer.

Padgett said she had gotten the message even before Monday's town hall session.

"We've had some push-back that maybe Fort Stanton isn't the proper name to call it. I see a man in the back shaking his head," Padgett said in reference to Robert Rowe.